Could botulinum toxin control your excessive sweating?

Everybody sweats, but if you feel like the amount you perspire is ruining your life, you could be suffering from hyperhidrosis. Fortunately, it’s something the doctors at Skin Renewal can easily diagnose and quickly treat with just a few botulinum toxin injections.

Don’t sweat it

Before we jump into chatting about the fix, let’s talk about the problem itself – excess sweating. We all do it and it’s only natural considering we have about three million sweat glands. While they don’t all function when we’re young, it’s full steam ahead by the time we reach puberty. It’s at this point when you’ll want to reach for a good antiperspirant. They form an occlusive gel that literally blocks your sweat glands, reducing the amount you perspire. Ideally, you want to look for one that also contains antimicrobial agents as sweat, something that doesn’t have a sweat on its own, gets smelly when it mingles with our skin’s bacteria.

If you produce a normal amount of sweat, your antiperspirant should keep it in check. However, if you’re suffering from hyperhidrosis, it won’t be up to the job and you’ll probably find yourself wanting to carry wet wipes, changing clothing and showering multiple times a day. Also, any part of the body that has sweat glands can be affected, not just your underarms. In fact, some hyperhidrosis sufferers aren’t bothered by their underarms at all but experience uncontrollable sweating of their hands and feet.

Know your type

There are two types of hyperhidrosis – ‘primary’ is characterized by sweating excessively for no underlying reason and ‘secondary’ is when the sweating is caused by something else.

In the case of primary, your sweat glands become hyperactive, often starting in childhood or puberty and doctors aren’t sure as to why. Oddly, it usually won’t happen when you’re asleep.

If your hyperhidrosis is secondary, as in caused by something else, reasons could range from being a side-effect to a medication or a symptom of a disease like diabetes. It can occur when you’re awake or asleep, usually affects your entire body but can also be ‘focal’, meaning it just affects a particular body part.

A quick fix

Your first step in treating hyperhidrosis is to have a medical doctor diagnose it and find out what’s causing it. If it’s related to a temporary health condition, they’re probably going to suggest you wait it out with a clinical strength antiperspirant. If, however, you’re struggling with the primary type, they might suggest treatment using botulinum toxin.

At Skin Renewal, we’ve been successfully treating hyperhidrosis for years. Just a few injections at the site of the excessive sweating blocks the neurotransmitter that activates sweat glands delivering up to four or five months of relief. The procedure is so quick and easy that it can be done in your lunch break and there’s zero down time. Later, when the effect wears off, you can simply repeat the injections for as many times as you wish.

In short, if you’re bothered by excess sweating, make an appointment to see one of our doctors today and you might be one of many who, with just a few injections, can face the world feeling dry and confident once more.